“What to eat with the flu”, “When to take paracetamol” and “What are ibuprofen used for” They are some of the most recently searched phrases by Spanish people on the internet. No wonder: Spain has seen a significant increase in cases of respiratory infections, including coronavirus, influenza or syncytial virus.
This growth has translated into a “triple plague” that has put large parts of the population on alert, and in practice has translated into mass vaccinations and a collapse of emergency services. Currently, flu numbers are still at their peak in much of Spain and refusing to fall. All of this creates a social environment, which, of course, has its counterpart online.
Semrush, a leading online visibility platform, found that, Searches related to flu vaccine Since the start of the vaccination campaign, there have been nearly 47,300 inquiries this year. But beyond that, uncertainty about symptoms leads people to search online for information about possible illnesses and treatments.In fact, this year’s search volume was Flu symptoms increased by more than 50%, relative to the previous one. For pneumonia, annual hospital visits increased by 234%.
COVID-19 is obsolete
this Coronavirus disease It’s still present in searches, but judging by analytics, it’s attracting less and less attention. Searches related to the disease caused by the SARS coronavirus and its vaccine fell 33% compared with last year. Even so, it continues to see high query volume, surpassing 40,000 just last month. (Symptoms of the new Covid-19 variant JN.1 Pirola: how to detect them and how to deal with its expansion)
despite this, Ibuprofen and paracetamolKnown for its analgesic and antipyretic properties, it has been a major focus of searches in the pharmaceutical field. There has been a clear upward trend in recent months, which has been linked to seasonal increases in respiratory illnesses. Spanish searches for paracetamol increased by 49.1% throughout the year, reaching 33,100 searches in December alone. For its part, ibuprofen had a lower increase of 22.3%, but its search volume was much higher, with 90,500 searches per month.
Other searches such as “what to eat with the flu”, “when to take paracetamol” or “what are ibuprofen used for” also dominated searches in this area, suggesting there is some uncertainty between the use of the two drugs. What is clear, however, is that when faced with fever, headaches and muscle aches, Spaniards oscillate between two over-the-counter medications to relieve symptoms of respiratory illnesses.
“As people get sick and face similar symptoms, people are concerned about Whether it’s COVID-19, the flu, or the common cold Resulting in a significant increase in internet searches. This phenomenon has led to a significant resurgence in searches for common medicines such as ibuprofen and paracetamol, with a significant increase of 49.1%,” stresses Fernando Angulo, International Communications Director at Semrush.
Regardless, the manager said that while “we usually turn to Google to resolve our concerns, in this case the smartest thing to do was to go to the health center and determine how we should proceed.”